for the best, and confequently difpenfed their favours without the leaft regard to abilities or virtue. And this defect I have often found among those from whom I least expected it. THAT your Excellency may long live a bleffing and ornament to your country, by pursuing, as you have hi therto done, the fteps of honour and virtue, is the most earneft wish and prayer of, My LORD, Your Excellency's moft obedient,- JONATH SWIFT Dr SWIFT to Dr SHERIDAN.. Quilca, Sept. 13. 1725. IF you are indeed a difcarded courtier, you have rea fon to complain, but none at all to wonder. You are too young for many experiences to fall in your way, yet you have read enough to make you know the nature of man. It is fafer for a man's intereft to blafpheme God, than to be of a party out of power, or even to be thought fo. And fince the last was the cafe, how could you imagine, that all mouths would not be open when you were received, and in some manner preferred by the government; tho' in a poor way I tell you, there is hardly a Whig in Ireland, who would allow a potato and butter-milk to a reputed Tory. Neither is there any thing in your countrymen upon this article, more than what is common in all other nations, only quoad majus et minus. Too much advertency is not your talent, or else you had fled from that text, as from a rock †. For, as Don Quixote faid to Sancho, what business had U 3 you + Sufficiers to the day is the evil thereof; on which Dr Sheridan preached his parish church on the aft of Auguft. See a vindicanon of his Excellency John Lord Carteret, vol. 3. Hawkes, you to fpeak of a halter, in a family where one of it was hanged And your innocence is a protection that wife men are afhamed to rely on, further than with God. It is indeed against common fenfe, to think, that you fhould chufe fuch a time when you had received a favour from the Lord Lieutenant, and had reafon to expect more, to difcover your difloyalty in the pulpit. But what will that avail? Therefore fit down and be quiet, and mind your business as you should do, and contract your friendfhips, and expect no more from man than fuch an animal is capable of; and you will every day find my defcription of Yahoos more resembling. You should think and deal with every man as a villain, without calling him fo, or flying from him, or valuing him lefs. This is an old true leffon. You believe every one will acquit you of any regard to temporal intereft; and how came you to claim an exception from all mankind? I believe you value your temporal intereft as much as any body, but you have not the arts of purfuing it. You are mistaken. Domeftic evils are no more within a man than others; and he who cannot bear up against the firft, will fink under the fecond; and, in my confcience, I believe this is your cafe; for being of a weak conftitution, in an employment precarious and tirefome, loaden with children, cum uxore neque leni neque commoda, a man of intent and abftracted thinking, inflaved by mathematics and complaint of the world, this new weight of partymalice hath firuck you down, like a feather on a horfe's back, already loaden as far as he is able to bear. You ought to change the apostle's expreffion, and fay, I will Atrive to learn in whatever state, &c. I will bear none of your vifions: you fhall live at Quilca but three fortnights and a month in the year; perhaps not fo much. You shall make no entertainments but what are neceffary to your interefts ; for your true friends would rather fee you over a piece of mutton and a bottle once a-quarter. You fhall be merry at the pence of others; you fhall take care of your health, d go early to bed, and not read late at night; and laugh with all men, without trufting any; and then a fig for the contrivers of your ruin, who now have further thoughts than to top your progress, which perhaps they may may not compafs, unless I am deceived more than is ufual. All this you will do, fi mihi credis, and not dream of printing your fermon, which is a project abounding with objections unanfwerable, and with which I could fill this letter. You fay nothing of having preached be. fore the Lord Lieutenant, nor whether he is altered towards you; for you speak nothing but generals. You think all the world has now nothing to do, but to pull Mr Sheridan down; whereas it is nothing but a flap in your turn, and away. Lord Oxford said once to me on an occafion, Thefe fools, because they hear a noife about their ears of their own making, think the whole world is full of it. When I come to town, we will change all this fcene, and act like men of the world. Grow rich, and you will have no enemies. Go fome. times to the caftle; keep faft Mr Tickell and Balaguer †; frequent thofe on the right fide, friends to the prefent powers; drop thofe who are loud on the wrong party, because they know they can fuffer nothing by it. WE Quilca, Sept. 19. 1725. 7E have prevailed with Neal, in fpite of his har> veft, to carry up Mifs, with your directions; and it is high time, for he was run almoft wild, tho' we have fomething civilized her fince he came among us. You are too fhort in circumftances. I did not hear you was forbid preaching. Have you feen my Lord? Who forbad you to preach? Are you no longer chaplain? Do you never go to the castle? Are you certain of the accufer, that it is Tigh? Do you think my Lord acts thus, because he fears it would breed ill humour, if he hould openly favour one who is looked on as of a different party? I think that is too mean for him. I do hot much difapprove your letter, but I think it a wrong method. + Private fecretary to his Excellency the Lord Carteret, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Dub. edit. method. Pray read over the inclosed twice; and if you do not diflike it, let it be fent (not by a fervant of yours, nor from you) to Mr Tickell. There the cafe is stated as well as I could do it in generals, for want of knowing particulars. When I come to town, I fhall fee the Lord Lieutenant, and be as free with him as poffible. In the mean time, I believe it may keep cold; however advise with Mr Tickell and Mr Balaguer. I fhould fancy, that the Bishop of Limerick+ could eafily fatisfy his Excellency, and that my Lord Lieutenant believes no more of your guilt than I and therefore it can be nothing but to fatisfy the noife of party at this juncture that he acts as he does; and if fo, (as I am confident it is), the effect will cease with the cause. But, without doubt, Tigh and others have dinned the words Tory and Facobite into his Excellency's ears, and therefore your text, &c. was only made ufe of as an opportunity. UPON the whole matter, you are no lofer, but at least have got fomething. Therefore be not like him who hanged himself, because going into a gaming-houfe, and winning ten thousand pounds, he loft five thousand of it,. and came away with only half his winnings. When my Lord is in London, we may clear a way to him to do you another job, and you are young enough to wait. WE fet out to Dublin on Monday the 5th of October, and hope to fup at the deanery the next night; where you will come to us, if you are not already engaged. I am grown a bad bailiff towards the end of my fervice. Your hay is well brought in, and better ftacked than ufual. All here are well. I know not what you mean by my having fome fport foon; I hope it is no fport that will vex me. PRAY do not forget to feal the inclosed before you fend it. I fend you back your letter to the Lord Lieutenant. LET Dr William Burfcow. LETTER CXIII. Dr SWIFT to Dr SHERIDAN. Quilca, Sept. 25. 1725. Our confufion hindered you from giving any rational account of your diftrefs, till this laft letter; and therein you are imperfect enough. However, with much ado we have now a tolerable understanding how things ftand. We had a paper fent inclosed, fubfcribed by Mr Ford, as we fuppofe: it is in print, and we all approve it; and this I fuppofe is the fport I was to expect. I do think it is agreed, that all animals fight with the weapons natural to them, (which is a new and wise remark out of my own head); and the devil take that animal who will not offend his enemy, when he is provoked, with his proper weapon; and tho' your old dull horse little values the blows I give him with the butt end of my stick, yet I ftrick on, and make him wince in fpite of his dulnefs; and he shall not fail of them while I am here; and I hope you will do fo too to the beaft who has kicked against you, and try how far his infenfibility will protect him; and you shall have help, and he will be vexed; for fo I found your horfe this day, tho' he would not move the fafter. I will kill that flea. or louse which bites me, tho' I get no honour by it. Laudari ab iis, quos omnes laudant, is a maxim; and the contrary is equally true.. Thank you for the offer of your mare; and how a pox could you come without her? They pulled off hers and your horfe's fhoes for fear of being rode, and then they rode them without fhoes, and fo I was forced to fhoe them again. All the fellows here would be Tighs, if they were but privy counsellors. You will never be at eafe for your friend's horfes or your own, till you have walled in a park of twenty acres, which I would have done next fpring. You may not a word of the letter I fent you for Mr. Tickell, whether you fent it him or no; and yet it was |